As display panels for displaying an image, there are known a display apparatus that makes use of an OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) and a display apparatus that makes use of an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display). Many display apparatuses include a display unit in which data lines each connected to a plurality of pixels arranged in a column direction and scanning lines each connected to a plurality of pixels arranged in a row direction are disposed and in which the pixels are arranged at intersections of the data lines and the scanning lines.
In the case of so-called line sequential scanning, a scanning line driver sequentially selects scanning lines, and a data line driver outputs a data line drive signal for one scanning line to each data line, whereby the display of each dot, i.e., each pixel is controlled.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. H9-232074 discloses a technology in which, in order to improve the delay in the rise of pixel light emission attributable to the parasitic capacitance of a display panel, all scanning lines are connected to a reset potential when scanning is shifted to the next scanning line. Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2004-309698 discloses a technology in which all electrodes are connected to a reset potential and then to a preset potential, as a method for reducing overshoot or undershoot when a display signal is supplied to a data electrode.
For example, in a passively-driven OLED display apparatus, in the case where scanning lines having different lengths exist in a display panel due to the shape of the display panel different than a typical rectangular shape or in the case where the lighting ratio of pixels (the number of lighted pixels) differs in respective scanning lines, there may be a case where the luminance partially becomes higher or lower than the original gradation. As a result, display unevenness is generated on a screen. The term “lighting ratio” referred to herein means the ratio of the number of emitted pixels to the total number of pixels in each of the scanning lines. The lighting ratio is given by an equation: (lighting ratio=the number of emitted pixels on a scanning line/the total number of pixels on a scanning line)